Supreme Court of the United States Commons^™

Equality And Freedom Of Speech (Eighteenth Annual Law Review Symposium: Demise Of The First Amendment? Focus On Rico And Hate Crime Litigation), Terrance Sandalow

Other Publications

The editors responsible for today's symposium have posed an alarming question: whether we are witnessing the demise of the First Amendment. I want to dispel at the outset any anxiety the question may have aroused. The First Amendment is alive and well; indeed, it is thriving. I believe, though I cannot prove, that public respect for the values it expresses has never been greater than it has been in recent years. Whether or not I am correct in that belief, however, it is certain that constitutional protections against governmental efforts to limit speech and other forms of expressive activity are …

Copperweld In The Courts: The Road To Caribe, Stephen Calkins

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Art Of Judgement In Planned Parenthood V. Casey, James Boyd White

Articles

This article was excerpted and abridged with permission from a chapter in Professor White's recent book Acts of Hope: Creating Authority in Literature, Law, and Politics. In the book, he explores the nature of authority in various cultural contexts. Here he examines the Joint Opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which has been attacked both from the right, on the grounds that it tried to keep Roe v. Wade alive, and from the left, on the grounds that it significantly weakens the force of that case. Professor White, by contrast, admires it greatly, and in this chapter explains …

How To Think About The Federal Commerce Power And Incidentally Rewrite United States V. Lopez, Donald H. Regan

Articles

Almost sixty years after the "revolution" of 1937, we still do not have an adequate theory of the commerce power. The Court was right to abandon the theory of dual federalism epitomized by Carter v. Carter Coal Co.;' and it has got the right results in the major cases decided since then. But our post-1937 theory, whether before or after Lopez, is a mess. On the one hand, we have a collection of doctrinal rules that, if we take them seriously, allow Congress to do anything it wants under the commerce power. On the other hand, we continue to pay …

Helping The Grim Reaper: Oregon's Measure 16 And Three Court Cases Put Assisted Suicide On A Fast Track To Supreme Court, Yale Kamisar, N. Schuyler, T. Balmer

Articles

Last November, Oregon's voters passed by initiative the first physician-assisted suicide law in the nation. Measure 16 authorizes physicians to prescribe lethal medicaiton for competent, terminally ill adults if they make three separate requests, wait 15 days to reconsider, and get a second medical opinion of their prognosis. The new law was challenged immediately on several legal grounds; plaintiffs have won a preliminary injunction, and arguments have been scheduled in cross motions for summary jugement. Lee v. Oregon (D Or. No. 94-6467-ITO).

The Oregon court's decision will mark the fourth time in the past year that the once-obscure issue of …

Initiative Petition Reforms And The First Amendment, Emily Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

The United States Supreme Court's Expansive Approach To The Federal Arbitration Act: A Look At The Past, Present, And Future Of Section 2, Preston Douglas Wigner

University of Richmond Law Review

The Federal Arbitration Act ["FAA"] was enacted in 1925 to ensure the validity and enforcement of arbitration agreements in contracts involving maritime transactions or interstate commerce. Intending the Act to be a simple method by which an opportunity would be given to enforce written arbitration agreements, Congress enacted what has become a confusing and controversial statute. Because of the absence of an in-depth discussion regarding the scope and applicability of the Act, Congress placed unintended burdens upon the courts to decipher congressional intent. Of particular concern to the courts was the authority by which Congress enacted the FAA.

Form V. Substance: The Supreme Court Retreats Into Its Formalistic Shell In Oklahoma Tax Commission V. Jefferson Lines, Jason P. Livingston

University of Richmond Law Review

The Constitution expressly authorizes Congress to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States." However, it says nothing about the protection of interstate commerce absent any affirmative action by Congress. The Supreme Court has consistently recognized implicit in the language of the Commerce Clause "a further, negative command, known as the dormant Commerce Clause, prohibiting certain state taxation even when Congress has failed to legislate on the subject." In finding that states may constitutionally tax the local portion of interstate business transactions, the Court has held that "[it was not the purpose of the Commerce Clause to relieve …

Even More Honest Than Ever Before: Abandoning Pretense And Recreating Legitimacy In Constitutional Interpretation, Leslie Gielow Jacobs

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

In this article, Professor Leslie Gielow Jacobs asserts that the Supreme Court, by becoming mired in a formalistic mode of reporting decisions, has sacrificed the legitimacy of its interpretive process. She argues that this sacrifice stems from contemporary Supreme Court opinions' failure to acknowledge alternatives and value judgments that inevitably are a part of decision making. She explores several recent decisions by the Court, noting the detrimental impact of formalism in each. Professor Jacobs then suggests a new method of reporting, defining, and structuring its components into a method which can recreate legitimacy in the interpretive process.

Prior Statements Of A Witness: A Nettlesome Corner Of The Hearsay Thicket, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In Tome v United States, for the fifth time in eight years, the Supreme Court decided a case presenting the problem of how a child's allegations of sexual abuse should be presented in court. Often the child who charges that an adult abused her is unable to testify at trial, or at least unable to testify effectively under standard procedures. These cases therefore raise intriguing and difficult questions related to the rule against hearsay and to an accused's right under the Sixth Amendment to confront the witnesses against him. One would hardly guess that, however, from the rather arid debate …

Judging Girls: Decision Making In Parental Consent To Abortion Cases, Suellyn Scarnecchia, Julie Kunce Field

Articles

Judges make determinations on a daily basis that profoundly affect people's lives. On March 28, 1991, the Michigan legislature enacted a statute entitled The Parental Rights Restoration Act (hereinafter "the Michigan Act" or "the Act"). This statute delegated to probate court judges the extraordinary task of deciding whether a minor girl may have an abortion without the consent of a parent. Nothing in law school and little in an average judge's experience provide a meaningful framework for making such a decision. Although many commentators, including the authors, argue that decisions about abortion should be left to the woman regardless of …

The Warren Court And Criminal Justice: A Quarter-Century Retrospective, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Many commentators have observed that when we speak of "the Warren Court," we mean the Warren Court that lasted from 1962 (when Arthur Goldberg replaced Felix Frankfurter) to 1969 (when Earl Warren retired). But when we speak of the Warren Court's "revolution" in American criminal procedure we mean the Warren Court that lasted from 1961 (when the landmark case of Mapp v. Ohio was decided) to 1966 or 1967. In its final years, the Warren Court was not the same Court that had handed down Mapp or Miranda v. Arizona.

Taxation Of Damages After Schleier - Where Are We And Where Do We Go From Here?, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

This article will examine the reasoning of the Schleier decision and speculate as to how taxation of pre-1996 damages will likely apply in light of Schleier. First, the article will set forth a very brief history of the judicial and administrative constructions of the statutory exclusion, and explore tax policy justifications for providing an exclusion from gross income for certain damages. These latter two items (set forth in Parts II and III of this article) are areas that have been extensively addressed previously by several commentators, including the author of this article.' The reason for exploring tax policy issues is …

Asymmetrical Peremptories Defended: A Reply, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

Three years ago, with the publication of his article ''An Asymmetrical Approach to the Problem of Peremptories" in this journal, Professor Friedman initiated a debate on the subject that was taken up in 1994 by three prosecutors who offered a rebuttal that was also printed in these pages. Professor Friedman continues the debate.

Forty Years In The Desert, Paul F. Campos

Publications

The author uses Brown v. Board of Education and the volumes of commentary it has provoked to illustrate that coherent constitutional interpretation is a useless exercise. He argues that the decision should be accepted as political reality and moral necessity and that we should cease debating its merit as constitutional interpretation.

A Comment On "Constitutional Rights As Public Goods", Robert F. Nagel

Publications

Discussion of T. W. Merrill, Dolan v. City of Tigard: Constitutional Rights as Public Goods, 72 Denv. U. L. Rev. 859 (1995).

Affirmative Action As A Women's Issue, Helen Norton

Publications

No abstract provided.

International Arbitration And Procedures To Enforce Awards In The Relationship Between The United States And Germany, Michael Kronenburg

LLM Theses and Essays

Arbitration has long been regarded as a process that combines finality of decision with speed, low expense, and flexibility in solving problems. For these reasons, arbitration is often favored over litigation for dispute resolution. Particularly in international cases, a businessman may avoid litigation in a foreign country for various reasons: he may be unfamiliar with the proceedings; he may be afraid to find a “forum hostile” because of the different legal and cultural background of the judges; and he may wish to avoid the uncertainty concerning the law arising from the contract. Arbitration proceedings have been held constitutional by the …

Proportionality In Non-Capital Sentencing: The Supreme Court's Tortured Approach To Cruel And Unusual Punishment, Steven P. Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the Supreme Court's treatment of the Eighth Amendment with respect to claims of excessive prison sentences. Specifically, it addresses the issue of whether and to what degree the Eighth Amendment requires that a punishment not be disproportionate to the crime. In analyzing all of the modern holdings of the Court in this area, this Article finds significant fault with each. The result of this series of flawed opinions from the Supreme Court is that the state of the law with respect to proportionality in sentencing is confused, and what law can be discerned rests on weak foundations. …

Determining The Role Of Psychological Bonding In New York Foster Care Law, Brian L. Greben

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Non-Impact Of The United States Supreme Court Regulatory Takings Cases On The State Courts: Does The Supreme Court Really Matter?, Ronald H. Rosenberg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Color-Coded Standing, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Remarkably, the Supreme Court has held that whites who wish to challenge the constitutionality of affirmative action plans have standing to do so. In Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors v. City of Jacksonville the Supreme Court upheld the standing of non-minority construction contractors to challenge a minority setaside program under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. What is remarkable is not that the result reached in the case was wrong, but that the Court was able to reach that result given its most recent standing precedents. In previous Terms, the Supreme Court had taken …

An Introduction To Environmental Law In The United States, Michael E. Herz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Holmes's Legacy And The New Constitutional History, Eben Moglen

Faculty Scholarship

The most significant collaborative effort in the literature of American constitutional history, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States, is nearing completion. A generation has passed since the appearance of the first volume, authored by Julius Goebel, Jr., and (after many vicissitudes affecting several of the works in the series) the appearance of this volume marks the antepenultimate stage. Though Professor Fiss's remarkable achievement deserves to be viewed primarily on the basis of its own merits as a study of the Fuller Court, a just appreciation of its contribution to the literature requires …

Contradictions Will Out: Animal Rights V. Animal Sacrifice In The Supreme Court, Henry Mark Holzer

Animal Law Review

A critique of the Supreme Court’s controversial Lukumi case which upheld religious sacrifice of animals.

The Flathead Water Quality Standards Dispute: Legal Bases For Tribal Regulatory Authority Over Non-Indian Reservation Lands, Daniel I.S.J. Rey-Bear

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Twins Separated At Birth: A Comparative History Of The Civil And Criminal Arising Under Jurisdiction Of The Federal Courts And Some Proposal For Change, Donald H. Zeigler

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Land Use Decisions, Hon. Leon D. Lazer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination: Recent Developments In The Supreme Court, Eileen Kaufman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ghost At The Banquet: Slavery, Federalism, And Habeas Corpus For State Prisoners, Marc Arkin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.